Shed almost done just some landscaping and fascia to do
The painting is all done (has been for about a week) and most of my junk that belongs in there is there now but I still need to build some shelves inside so there is room for everything besides just the floor. Today we got a bunch of gravel and sand and even more gravel to build a nice white gravel surround around the front and sides.
The bricks are just there to hold the edging in place until we can get some more gravel, sand and topsoil to landscape everything all nice and pretty. The bulk of the work is on the one side where the ground is so much lower.
I also have some final front fascia along the top to build. You can see where I built a box around the front edge rafters but the one corner is still open.
We also drastically underestimated how much white gravel we’d need so the two sides are still just covered in sand right now. I decided not to run the white gravel all the way around the front since it would just be a nuisance when trying to get something heavy out like the lawn mower.
Rosco was taking a break in front when I snapped the picture. He had just finished a long bout of power fetch so he was taking a well earned siesta.
Hopefully within the next few weeks we’ll be able to get the rest of the brush and crap cleared away from the rest of the yard and get the whole place looking spiffier. Now that this monster project is all but complete we can move on to cleaning up, and there is a lot to clean up.
Hypocrisy
Apr 9
Posted by EarnieShoes in Theological Commentaries | No Comments
Unintended by some but not by others. While young-earth creationism on the surface exposing other relevant and theologically orthodox and valid points of view such as old-earth creationism as theistic evolution or at worst heresy are, no matter how you want to dress it up, just as hypocritical as the actual secular evolutionists both views clearly deny and rightly so.
If one wishes to hold a young earth creationist view they are perfectly welcome to. It’s not a hill I want to die on, but I don’t think it’s intellectually honest to on the one hand describe evolution and its followers as hopelessly decieved and on the other mischaracterize another point of view that is very close to your own and then discredit it, especially knowing little to nothing of the real science behind the other positions. I’ll be direct in that I don’t entirely hold to the day age interpretation of Genesis but that interpretation most closely describes my position. As someone who does know the science and has investigated the possible interpretations of Genesis, the day age interpretation aligns most closely to the record of nature while still remaining entirely valid as an interpretation of the original language within a valid historical and grammatical context. While the day age interpretation holds that the six days of creation are long periods of time I’m of the opinion that it’s also possible that the record of nature just is what it is and that the poetic style of Genesis is a clever way for Moses to have described the order and hierarchy of creation in his historical context rather than an exact chronology that nowhere else in the context of the text is there any emphasis on chronology. Note I say emphasis not devoid of mention. Yes there is mention of periods of time all over the place. That does not mean that chronology is or was the point.
The sticking point for me and countless other Reformed Christians is not Scripture. There will always be small variations in the interpretation of difficult passages of Scripture. My sticking point is a completely dishonest approach to reading the record of nature – the very nature provided by God. Whether it is self deception or outright dishonesty the result is still the same – a misinterpretation of the real record of nature. My experience with most Christians has been that they either don’t care or if they hold to the young earth point of view they know little to nothing of the evidence for old earth views that is overwhelmingly in favor of that view. Even some well known theologians make the same mistake as any other Christian. They on the one hand promote a historico-grammatical interpretation of the text except when it refers to the age of the earth where history and context do not promote such a position. I’m not a theologian and won’t pretend to be on that level but I know self deception and avoidance of the truth when I see it.
Recently I read a geological article from a sound Reformed Christian who is also a proven and published geologist. He doesn’t conform to evolution, holds that Adam and Eve were the beginning of humanity, that all creation is directly from and by God, as does any other Christian, nor does he purport significant theological reasons for his position as an old earth creationist, but he does present his case in a clear, well written manner. To be fair I wanted to see what “the other side” had to say about it. The “Answers in Genesis” site touts numerous theological reasons for why he is wrong that completely ignores the context of the article by providing no scientific proof against the geologist’s position (testable, repeatable, falsifiable or otherwise). I knew already that “Answers in Genesis” has never been the go-to spot for serious science and has in the past provided some of the poorest examples of honest and valid science you’ll find, but they did have a fairly lengthy article refuting the other position. Let me repeat – the issue here is the science. On the one side I see scientists doing good, solid, repeatable and provable (falsifiable if you want to use the scientific term) work and on the other I see the poorest if any provable science being done even though it is fervently refuted and there is the crux. There is the expectation of respect as theologians (even though many aren’t that either) but no expectation of respect for any other field of study even though those very same fields of study have provided the means for those very same purported theologians to get to church every sunday. Oil exists. Science has an answer – God provided huge biomass deposits to decay over time under extreme pressure. The young earth “scientist” will say it just appears that way. The young earth layman will way “it’s a miracle” and leave it at that. At least the layman isn’t being dishonest, I’ll give them that.
Why did I title this hypocrisy? The very same Christians who tout fair and honest interpretation of the text fall back to tradition when it comes to this issue and ignore context, history and evidence. While context, history and evidence are paramount when it comes to any other issue, somehow this issue is allowed special status. I’m not going to go into a long theological diatribe about how and why I can prove the young earth creationists are wrong nor in the end does it really matter. It’s only the assertive, “you’re a heretic and you can’t possibly be saved” crowd that bothers me and their influence among other Christians. The record of nature has been proven time and time again to be very very old; billions of years old, by provable repeatable measurement. Not pseudo-science or name calling or mischaracterization. By Christian scientists with honest intentions and a desire to discover the wonder of God’s creation. Not by evolutionary scientists who can be proven as just as misguided, even though the uninformed who prefer to keep their heads buried firmly in the sand would accuse real honest Christian scientists as evolutionists because their results happen to show a length of time that is the same as the evolutionists. It’s not honest and it’s hypocritical. Not even knowing what those who would disagree with you actually believe and instead mischaracterize that view so that yours seems more valid is dishonest. That behavior is just as hypocritical and dishonest as the secular science of evolution they would purport to have a higher understanding of.
Old earth creationism is not evolutionism. It is a harmonization of real science with the text of Scripture. To those who would mischaracterize the position as anything else I say this bluntly – you are just as much a hypocrite as those you would accuse of being for promoting evolutionism that has no basis in fact (and certainly not Scripture). To those who would accuse old earth creationists as heretics I say get your head out of the sand and learn how real science works before you go accusing those who don’t fit within your narrow misunderstanding.